NTSB: Pilot errors led to 2011 fatal plane crash

Apr. 25, 2013

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Emergency personnel respond to a plane crash in a field off Westport Ave. and 60th St. N. just west of the Sioux Falls Regional Airport in Sioux Falls on Dec. 9, 2011. / Elisha Page / Argus Leader

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The National Transportation Safety Board has found that the pilot’s failure to maintain adequate air speed and to follow emergency guidelines likely led to a crash that killed him and three others in December 2011 at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.

Brian Blake, a 54-year-old charter pilot from Sioux Falls, “failed to maintain adequate air speed after shutting down one engine, which resulted in an inadvertent aerodynamic stall and impact with terrain,” the NTSB finding said.

Contributing to the accident “was the pilot’s failure to follow the guidance contained in the pilot’s operating handbook, which advised feathering the propeller of the secured engine and retracting the flaps and landing gear.”

An unidentified spokesman with NTSB in Washington, D.C., said the report, adopted April 10, “is the board’s official statement on that accident.”

Killed in the Dec. 9, 2011, crash along with Blake were Kevin Anderson and Daniel Swets of Sioux Falls, and Joshua Lambrecht of Brandon. The three passengers were headed to a FIRST Lego League practice competition in Rapid City.

Swet’s widow, Robyn, said she was aware the report had been released, but was uncomfortable discussing it and referred any other questions to Clint Sargent, her Sioux Falls lawyer. Sargent was not immediately available Thursday afternoon.

NTSB’s investigation of the crash found that Blake had shut down the left engine on the Cessna 421C soon after takeoff from the Sioux Falls airport. Witnesses testified that they saw flames coming from the left engine, but as the plane began a left turn, the flames and white smoke could not be seen, consistent with Blake shutting the engine down.

“When the airplane reached a southerly heading,” the report said, “the nose dropped abruptly, and the airplane descended to the ground.”

The crash was about three-quarters of a mile from the airport.

The landing gear and wing flaps were extended at the time of impact, and the report noted that the left propeller “was not feathered.” Feathering involves the rotating of a propeller blade into a prevailing wind to reduce drag. Not feathering the propeller would be like applying a brake to the left side of the plane, making it more difficult to fly, experts say.

“Performance data provided in the (pilot’s operating handbook) for single-engine operations were predicated on the propeller of the inoperative engine being feathered, and the wing flaps and landing gear retracted,” the NTSB report said. “Thus, the pilot did not follow the emergency procedures outlined in the POH for single-engine operation.”